The Arkansas Insurance Department (AID) says Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace (AHIM) customers will save a combined projected $13.14 million due to elimination of a fee charged to companies in previous plan years.
Act 107 of 2019 disbanded AHIM as a private entity and returned the Marketplace to the Arkansas Insurance Department for this first time since 2015. In previous plan years, AHIM charged a user fee to all individual policies to fund its operating budget. The most recent fee was 1.25% on top of the cost of a policies’ monthly premium. All four insurers participating in the Marketplace in 2020 cited the elimination of the AHIM Exchange User Fee as a factor in their rate request.
The department has approved the following Plan Year 2020 rate changes for individual health insurance policies sold on the AHIM:
| Company | Average % Change Requested | Average % Change Approved | Covered Lives |
| Ambetter | 1.90% | 1.90% | 67,959 |
| Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield | 2.89% | 2.89% | 166,139 |
| QCA Health Plan | 0.56% | 0.56% | 18,935 |
| QualChoice Life and Health | 0.51% | 0.51% | 18,401 |
The approved rates represent the average increase for plans based upon their filings with the Department and were subject to independent actuarial analysis to determine if the requests were actuarially sound, excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory. Individual policyholders may see a higher or lower increase of their premiums or, in some cases, a decrease for Plan Year 2020.
The average combined increase for marketplace plans based on projected premiums is 2.08%.
Source: Arkansas Insurance Department
Topics Arkansas
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